Monday, May 10, 2004
Christ is Risen!
The Holy Apostle Simon Zelotes
Kellia: Deuteronomy 4:15-24 Apostle: Acts 12:12-17 Gospel: St. John 8:42-51
Deuteronomy 4:15-24, especially vss. 15, 16 RSV: "Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to
you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves...." A
powerful parallel exists between the teaching of the Prophet Moses in today's reading and the doctrine of the Apostle Paul
in his Epistle to the Romans. Observe this parallelism in the following digest from Romans: "since the creation of the
world, [God's] invisible attributes are clearly seen...by the things that are made" (Rm. 1:20). "Men who suppress the truth
in unrighteousness (Rm. 1:18)....although they knew God...did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful (Rm.
1:21)....[but] exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator...." (Rm.
1:25).
Both the Prophet and the Apostle start with the invisible nature of God and trace the emergence of idolatry to its source in
the acceptance by fallible humans of the corrupting lie of service and worship of the creature (Deut. 4:16; Rm. 1:25). Both
list various physical entities (Deut. 4:16-19; Rm. 1:23) which often are substituted as objects for worship in place of "the
Lord [Who] spoke to you at Horeb" (Deut. 4:15)....and brought you forth...out of Egypt, to be a people of His own" (vs.
20).... the Lord your God...a devouring fire, a jealous God" (vs. 24).
Fascination with and reverence for material things, as expressions of wonder at God's creation, are, in themselves, healthy
and natural movements of men's hearts and minds: "How magnified are Thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast Thou made
them all; the earth is filled with Thy creation" (Ps. 103:26 LXX). Mankind's trouble begins with the "exchange of the
truth of God for the lie"(Rom. 1:25). Men start believing that the creation is God and ought to receive their highest
reverence and devotion. To identify this "exchange" as the source of idolatry exposes the dead-end into which the devil
invites us. Suddenly, one sees precisely what is wrong with modern secularist culture - its slavish devotion to material
things.
Modern secularists pride themselves on their freedom from religion and superstition, and find it hard to imagine how men
could have been devoted to gods and goddesses, deities "in the likeness of any beast that is on the earth...of any winged bird
that flies in the air...of anything that creeps on the ground...[or] of any fish that is in the water under the earth" (Deut.
4:17,18). It seems incredible that people would "worship them and serve them" (vs. 19) and force "poor Moses" to caution
the People against such obvious error; yet here is the kernel of the problem: service of "the creature rather than the Creator"
(Rm. 1:25), the error of secularism.
The Apostle continues his teaching by tracing a link between the service of things and mankind's capture by "vile
passions." For example, "women [exchanged] the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise, men also leaving the
natural use of the woman [burning] in....lust for one another" (Rm. 1:26,27). The connection between the service of things
rather than God and moral decadence is predictable. Let the reader remember that Moses had just cautioned the People
against further troubles of the sort that overtook them as a result of participating in the debaucheries of the cult of the Baal
of Peor (Deut. 4:3; Nu. 25:1,2,3).
The God Whom Moses calls us to worship and serve is the Lord Who acts for His People in history, Who takes us to be His
own, and brings us forth "out of the iron furnace [that ignites our passions], out of Egypt [the mind-set of idolatry], to be a
people of His own possession" (Deut. 1:20). Let each one ask himself: do I "despise the riches of His goodness,
forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads [me] to repentance?" (Rm. 2:4). Receive me,
a slave to passion, O Fountain of life that takest away the sins of the world.
